Hokkaido - the Shiretoko Peninsula

a room with an obscure view

on a clear day you can see Kunashiri

    After leaving the Notsuke Peninsula (the name of the sandspit in the previous post), the weather continued to be uncooperative with heavy low-lying clouds and occasional scattered showers. The drive from the Notsuke Peninsula to the town of Utoro on the northern shore of the Shiretoko Peninsula, where our hotel was located, took us on a winding road full of hairpin turns over the summit of the mountain chain that forms the peninsula. The weather on the northern slope was no better than that on the southern and, except for a brief exciting moment of blue sky, sea and sunshine, remained uncooperative the whole time.

one of the pools of "jade"

       We had a wonderful room with panoramic views of the Sea of Okhotsk, the town of Utoro and the shoreline—mostly in various shades of gray and obscurity the whole time—at a huge hot spring hotel called the Shiretoko Daiichi (Shiretoko Number One) Hotel. A word about onsen hotels in Japan. There are all kinds, some, like the Daiichi are huge palace-like structures that, perhaps, appeal to the Japanese sense, lacking in daily life, of space. These can have sumptuous communal baths rivaling Roman baths of old. Others can be quaint older inns with loads of charm or out of the way and/or secluded detached houses in a natural private garden setting. Different strokes for different folks, but, all things considered, we prefer the quaint, charming and secluded types. Just an FYI in case you have the opportunity to stay at a Japanese onsen.

small secluded hot spring pool

"mountain deity" the brown bear

Oshinkoshin Waterfall

      Things to do on the Shiretoko Peninsula are mostly eco-tourism related. We visited a museum while it rained, some waterfalls and a lakes region; popular sites in the area. The area is also home to some wild animal species, including foxes, deer, and brown bears. Warnings about how to behave around bears abound but everyone secretly yearns to encounter a bear (at a safe distance of course), and deer and foxes (closer up is OK).

on the boardwalk

       There is a region of Five Lakes about a half hour drive from Utoro. The lakes themselves are rather ordinary, but there is a magnificent boardwalk a half a mile long to one of the lakes. It is edged with an electrified fence supposedly to stave off bears, but not a bear in site. The highlight of the mile long walk was, in fact, the sudden clearing of the sky. The sky and sea became blue and the horizon clearly discernible. It seemed like a veil was being lifted from the surrounding mountains. All cameras were turned, seemingly in unison, to capture the wonder of this unexpected change in the weather.

an unexpected change in the weather

one of the lakes in the Five Lakes area

like a veil being lifted

hungry looking red fox

doe and fawn

       Beyond the Five Lakes area, you can follow a dirt road to one of the most unique waterfalls I have ever seen, Kamuiwaka Hot Spring Waterfall. You have to take a bus, private vehicles are not permitted on the road at this time of the year. Some of the bridges are so narrow and rickety looking you hold your breath while the bus maneuvers its way through. Along the way, suddenly, some of the fauna appeared on the side of the road, some deer a fox or two and even a small barely glimpsed bear cub off in the distance.

stag

       The water in Kamuiwaka is warm. It's source is a hot spring pouring out of the earth. It doesn't only tumble over a precipice but flows over the sloping river bed at an angle easy enough and shallow enough to walk in. Road Buddy was the first to take her shoes off and go in. I, with a recently broken femur, and our son with a recently injured knee, at first demurred to go in, but it looked so tempting that I finally plucked up my nerve and took off my shoes and carefully stepped in. At that point, our son said: “What the hell!”, and followed suit. It was great fun and no accidents.

Kamuiwaka Hot Spring Waterfall

       And then, wonder of wonders, as we were walking back to the bus stop, I spotted a bear across the valley who was busy eating and, paying no attention to all the attention it was getting, just kept on eating and posing. The pictures had to be taken with a zoom in, but you can at least tell that it is a bear.

The Final Frontier . . .

. . . or the first conflict zone?

     Or merely how the Shiretoko (in Ainu “land's end”) Peninsula in eastern Hokkaido's promotional people bill the area? The extreme eastern tip of the peninsula is, according to the literature, “a place where nature has been preserved in an extremely primitive state”. Beyond a certain point there are no roads--and only dirt roads up to that point. Anyone wishing to go into the preservation area, dangerous for kimun kamuy “mountain deity”, the Ainu word for brown bears and unpredictable weather conditions, should have “a high level of skill, physical fitness and mental judgment”. This clearly is not a place for a Sunday afternoon stroll or Senior Citizen walking exercise.

an Ainu elder

        Hokkaido is the home of the indigenous people known as the Ainu. In the Ainu language, ainu means “human”, the word for gods is kamuy (similar to the Japanese kami for a similar concept), not unlike Native Americans, their name, Ainu, simply means the people. Their origin is not completely clear but anthropologists postulate a mongolian genotype most likely an intermixing of Okhotsk and Jomon people between 8000 and 1000 BCE. It's interesting to speculate about some relationship to the Inuit peoples of North America who are thought to have migrated from Siberia around the same period—c.1000 BCE.

a ghostly Kunashiri

in happier times - Rausu Museum

        Off the eastern shore of Hokkaido lie the four northern islands that were captured by Russia at the end of World War II. Known in Japan as the Four Northern Islands and in Russia as the Southern Kuriles they are a popular topic of discussion and bone of contention among extreme right wing groups who demand their return to Japan. A little museum in the coastal town of Rausu, from which you can see Kunashiri on a clear day (not the day we were there) is filled with visuals full of longing for Japan's irredenta, the lost islands and the lost homes now sparsely occupied by Russians—not a single Japanese person lives on the lost islands. Even on a very low-ceiling cloudy day, you can catch a phantom glimpse of Kunashiri. The other three are named Shikotan, Habomai and Etorofu. A much publicized visit to Etorofu (Iturup in Russian) by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on August 22 in spite of Japan's official protest has raised the temperature in Russia/Japan relations, which, in any case, have been deteriorating since the onset of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

        After seeing to the repair of our collision scarred Mazda Demio, we rented a car and proceeded (with our son) from Kushiro (site of the accident) towards the Shiretoko Peninsula. We had originally planned to stay at a hot spring near Lake Akan, but that had to be canceled because we were required to stay in Kushiro pending settlement of accident legalities and details. That was unfortunate since we had planned to attend an Ainu festival that evening that included exhibits, stories and costumed dances that would have been very interesting.

ate it all up...

the noodle restaurant

        Before driving on to the Shiretoko  Peninsula, we stayed at a little hot spring hotel in the seaside town of Shibetsu-cho. The best thing about the hotel, which was a little run down looking, was the hot spring tub in the room. It was just what the doctor ordered for winding down a little from the stress and trauma of the previous day. For dinner we chose a popular noodle restaurant just down the street from the hotel which served meals so generous that only our son was able to finish his.

...ate maybe half or so

        Next morning the weather continued to be uncooperative: low hanging clouds, occasional rain, poor visibility as we drove out along a sand spit and marshland not far from the hotel in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Kunashiri, the closest to Hokkaido of the lost Four Northern Islands. Well, we did catch a glimpse, but that was about it. The weather wasn't particularly inviting, but we continued to drive as far as possible on the sand spit and stopped at a little museum that displayed some of the fauna and flora of the area. 

beached fishing boats

fishing boat under sail

aerial view of the end of the sand spit and marshland

fauna of the spit and marshes

marshlands

wildflowers amid the marsh grasses 

dead trees preserved by the salty air of the marsh

Dmitri Medvedev on Etorofu (Iturup)

        No sight of Mr. Medvedev though, but we were a couple of days early and he was on another island anyway. Thrilling to be so near to historical (hysterical?) developments! But, we're trying to stay serene and calm even though Russia has the bomb and, I hear, our city administration is sponsoring “fun visits” to military camps for primary school children and parents. I would hate to think military promotion! But the Abe (Japan's Prime Minister) Administration IS pushing for more military involvement outside Japan for the (non-Army!) Self Defense Forces by splitting hairs and parsing the meaning of Article 9 of the “Peace Constitution”. 

when you're thrown from a horse . . .

     It's an old saw, but when you are thrown from a horse, folk wisdom dictates that you get right back on . . . to avert an irrational fear of riding again.

...after

     This is not about horses with four legs, but the kind under the hood of a car, a car that was sideswiped in a road accident, my car, and my fault; my attention was distracted and I missed seeing a stop sign—too late to prevent the car coming at us from the passenger side from hurtling into us. The sickening sound of such an impact is impossible to describe and the instinct, as the car fills with smoke, screams to get out as quickly as possible.

     Then you see the shambles that was your beautiful automobile sitting forlornly in the middle of the road. The car seems to be in shock as much as you are. The rest is waiting for the ambulance, the police, the fire trucks; it's the incessant noise of endless questions; it's the buzzing in your head that says: “We are fucked!”--1300 miles from home and now no wheels and travel plans in shreds.

before....

      This is not about being thrown from the horse, but about getting back on again, if not this horse, then, for a while, other ones. Our mare, a Mazda Demio 1.3 liter (we nicknamed her “Demi” because the GPS speaks with a patient and polite female voice), can be repaired and restored to its pre-collision condition we were assured by the repair shop owner, and she will be shipped back to our home in a month or two.

     Our son arrived on time at the airport, where we were supposed to meet him, soon after the accident. We called and asked him to take a taxi to the hospital that was treating Road Buddy for her non-life threatening injuries. I myself appeared to be unhurt (I felt a soreness in my chest later on where the seat belt had restrained me). I waited for him in the lobby and explained the situation. He was calm and supportive. The police required me to stay in town until they determined whether there would be a personal injury claim against me so we had to stay in a hotel in town. Since Road Buddy (our Japanese speaker) was being examined our son called the hotel and calmly and efficiently made arrangements since my Japanese isn't good enough to handle complex issues on a phone.

our rented Nissan K-car

     After all the examinations and questions were settled we took a taxi to the hotel. The next morning, the police called and said that no personal injury charges would be filed against me, I wouldn't lose my driver's license, and we were free to leave town, he said. We decided to continue the next few days of our planned trip with our son in a rented car. We had to stop off at the repair shop to make arrangements for the Mazda and planned to rent a car near the hotel. We walked out in the rain and checked the rental agencies, but not one of them had a car available. Blocked on that front, we took a taxi to the repair shop. We got a very positive feeling from the owner who assured us that the car was not as bad as I had thought and could be repaired—at a cost of at least $4000...all covered by insurance. We were more than a little relieved. On an off chance we asked the shop people if they could loan us a replacement vehicle for a few days. They said they could arrange a rented car from the airport (they apparently had a connection—it's nice to know people).

   

     In due time a light blue K-car (650 cc) arrived, we transferred what gear we had left in the navy blue Mazda and, a little shakily at first, I got behind the wheel and we drove off, a trifle over-cautiously at first, on the next leg of our planned trip, a couple days in the Shiretoko Peninsula region of eastern Hokkaido—in the deep north of Japan. Japan's irredenta, the Northern Islands, lie just off the coast of eastern Hokkaido. They have been occupied by Russia since the end of World War II and remain a bone of contention between the two nations. 

Shiretoko Peninsula in winter with Sea of Okhotsk soft ice flow

On the road to the deep north -- Hieizan (比叡山)

Amida Hall

      Japan has a unique history in terms of religious development. Unlike the religious wars in Europe between Islam and Christianity, clashes of religion did not occur in Japan between the native animistic Shinto and Buddhism, but rather a sort of peaceful merging or amalgamation of religious beliefs and practices evolved into the present day syncretic culture of Shinto and Buddhism. That is not to say that there have not been religious conflicts, but they tended to be among different interpretations of Buddhist texts and doctrinal differences not unlike the internecine wars between Catholics and Protestants in Europe over similar differences. Of course, political considerations were never very far from religious motives 

Kyoto in summer haze from Hiei-zan

        Travel destinations in Japan almost inevitably include the many temples and shrines one can find all over the country from the famous ones to obscure local ones crumbling away into disuse and ruin as rural depopulation takes the young away from the countryside. Accordingly our winding road trip to the deep north took us to several temple/shrine complexes, where it can be difficult to distinguish where a shrine ends and a temple begins the syncretism is so seamless and well established. Our first stop was the Hiei-zan complex between Kyoto and Lake Biwa.

Main Temple

Saicho

        Enryaku-ji Temple (延暦寺) was founded by a monk named Saicho who went to China in the 8th Century to study Tiantai Buddhism (Tendai in Japanese) and returned to Japan and established a Tendai branch temple on Mount Hiei in 788. The temple complex was razed by fire by a warlord named Oda Nobunaga in 1571 to check the rising power of Tendai warrior monks. After the Tokugawa clan consolidated power and established the Edo Period Shogunate in 1603, they rebuilt the Hiei-zan temple complex and it is still the mother temple of the Tendai sect today.

courtyard of the Main Temple

young monks' work is never done it seems

monks if the Tendai Buddhist sect

Benkei no Ninaidō (with a bridge between
the two temple buildings)

the powerful Benkei pulling a heavy temple bell

        The most charming building on the complex (I thought) was called the “Benkei no Ninaidō” (Benkei holding up the temple bridge). Benkei was a Tendai warrior monk. There is a well known story about Benkei related to a fratricide, again over a power struggle, between two brothers named Yoshitsune and Yoritomo. Benkei is said to have been an unusually big and strong man who was loyal to the heroic warrior Yoshitsune. Yoshitsune was used by his clever scheming brother Yoritomo to fight the clan's battles and then had him pursued to Chūson-ji (a temple we later visited) and forced him to commit seppuku to preempt a power struggle, while his loyal retainer Benkei stood guard at the temple door to preserve the sanctity of the ritual suicide and was pierced by arrows and killed à la St. Sebastian by Yoritomo's hit men. In spite of the fraternal blood on his hands, Yoritomo was victorious over his rival warlords and founded the Kamakura Bakufu (Shogunate) system of government in Japan in 1196. This system was continued by the Tokugawa clan to rule Japan from 1603 to 1868--the Tokugawa Bakufu (Shogunate) of the Edo Period. 

portico capturing the evening sun's glow

legend says that Benkei held up this (broken) bridge
 so that other monks could cross to their prayers

cleanliness is next to godliness I suppose

looking a bit the worse for wear after a long day of driving
and walking around the Hiei-zan complex